Social manufacturing realizing personalization production: A state-of-the-art review

Traditional manufacturing researches are mainly focusing on one concrete technology application, such as production model, supplier management, advanced automatic equipments etc. Rapid developments and advances in information, manufacturing and management areas make the social environment of manufacturing change much. The global competition and multifarious customer demands are more and more universal phenomena. The difference and evolution in the advanced manufacturing systems need to be researched deeply. In addition, the relationships and functions among these social factors and the automatic manufacturing systems should be investigated in detail. Social manufacturing provides a new paradigm for the enterprises to capture the value. In this article, recent researches in social manufacturing are reviewed.

I. Introduction

Since the 1920s, the mass production was a common production style in many manufacturing industries in America, such as in motor company, woodworking industry, bicycle industry etc. [1]. In 1970 a completely new idea, production for individuation, was proposed by Alvin Toffler in his book: «Future Shock: The Third Wave» [2]. The production mode really embodying customer requirements is firstly expressed as “mass customization” by Stanley in his book «Future Perfect» [3]. It is an alternative to differentiate companies in a highly competitive and segmented market [4]. Joseph pointed out that the keys in mass customization are the variety and diversification of products instead of the increase of the product cost corresponding [5]. In essence, the scope of mass customization is mass production of customized products [6].